A door frame has a mortise or recess that accepts a strike plate, that is typically made of metal, in the rabbet of the frame. When a door closes, the strike plate accepts or receives, and retains, the latch and the deadbolt from the lockset that is mortised into the door. Either or both can secure the door in place for the purpose of, for example, protection from smoke/fire and/or security.
As a door closes into the locked or latched position, the latch on the edge of the door meets what is often a curved lip on the strike plate. However, some strike plates have no curved lip, and that have a lip that is simply straight with no curve. The lip of the strike plate often extends above the face of the frame. The lip allows the latch to begin to retract and facilitates or eases the engagement of the door in to the frame. This point of engagement, or contact, can produce a noticeable metal sound. It can be dramatically accentuated if the frame is metal and/or if a metal frame is hollow inside and does not have a solid material such as mortar filling the cavity.
Moreover, improper or inconsistent installation of frames and doors can adversely affect the security of the intended closing and latching. The frames may be set too tightly or too loosely. Any of the three sides of a frame can possibly be twisted, which further hinders the ease of the closing and latching of the door. This can affect the security and/or the safety of the door opening if the door does not close easily and completely. Any condition that inhibits the ease of closing and latching usually results in a field fix of making adjustments on the spring hinges or door closers that make them close faster and slam shut. This increases the undesirable noise of a metal latch hitting a frame that can also be metal.
Manufacturers of locksets sometimes provide the strike plate which is to be installed in the rabbet of the door frame. Lips of the strike plate, which lips are oriented so as to face the closing door, can have different heights and different profiles such as different profiles of curved lips. Manufacturers of locksets also have latches extending out of the lockset, on the edge of the door, that have different angles.
For example, it may be desirable for the guest entry door in a hotel to be self-closing and self-latching to meet fire code. These doors may also self-lock and some may have automatic deadbolts that engage when the door enters a latched position. Moreover, some deadbolts are manually engaged (e.g., extended) from the inside of a door by a user turning a thumb turn on the inside face of the trim plates or face of the door. When a deadbolt is extended before a door is closed, and then the door is closed, it can cause an extremely loud banging noise when the deadbolt hits the lip of the strike plate and/or the frame. It is also noted that for some locks that have automatic extension of a deadbolt, one can activate the deadbolt before the door closes by depressing a secondary latch in the bottom of the edge of the lock. People often like to extend the deadbolt (sometimes known as “throwing the deadbolt”) so that they can prop the door open to perhaps get ice or sometimes to simply leave it open in case they want to go back into a room at some point. Maids in hotels also tend to throw the deadbolt to hold doors open when a hotel room is being cleaned.
A problem is that the deadbolt can slam against the face of the frame and/or against the lip of a strike plate, and make a loud sound and possibly damage structure. The lip of the strike plate is often located beyond/above the frame. This can cause guest noise complaints in hotels concerning slamming doors. It can also damage the core of a door because it puts increased torque on the screws holding the lock inside the edge mortise of the door. If the door and/or frame is wood, it can also split the edge of the door and/or damage a wood frame. If the door is metal it can bend the tap plates that secure the lock body in the mortise. It can also damage the electronics of locksets.
It will be appreciated from the above that there exists a need in the art for addressing noise and/or damage issue when doors with extended deadbolts are shut, closed, or the like. It may be desirable to quiet the sound of an extended deadbolt when it is closed on a door frame and/or strike plate. It may be also desirable to quiet the sound of the engagement of a metal latch when it hits the metal strike plate. It may also be desirable to address variations in strike plates with respect to variations in strike lip profiles and/or variations of angles of lock latches.
Accordingly to example embodiments of this invention, a structure may be provided for cushioning an extended deadbolt of a door when the door with the extended deadbolt is moved from an open position to a closed position. The inside of the cushioning structure may have springs and/or a soft cushioning material such a foam. It could be one, two or more springs in certain example embodiments, and/or one or more pieces of foam. An example design of a spring may be conical in shape so that it may recess in to itself when fully or substantially fully compressed. A conical spring could also be set inside of a coiled spring that is a fraction (e.g., about half) the height of the conical spring. This may allow the extended deadbolt to bottom out for doors that hit the strike plate and/or frame with a greater speed and force. One could increase the tension on one or more springs. As discussed herein, foam may also be used for force absorbing material in cushioning structures in various embodiments of this invention. The cushioning structure may be telescoping in nature in example embodiments of this invention.
In certain example embodiments of this invention, there is provided a deadbolt cushioning system comprising: a deadbolt cushioning structure attached to a door frame, so that when a door with a fully extended deadbolt closes from a wide open position toward a closed position the extended deadbolt impacts the deadbolt cushioning structure, the deadbolt cushioning structure for preventing the extended deadbolt from impacting the door frame and for preventing the extended deadbolt from impacting a strike plate attached to the door frame; wherein the deadbolt cushioning structure includes a first housing and second housing with a biasing structure provided therebetween, the biasing structure comprising foam and/or a spring; wherein the first housing is affixed to a face of the door frame, wherein the second housing is slidable relative to the first housing, so that when the deadbolt impacts the deadbolt cushioning structure the biasing structure compresses and the second housing slides relative to the first structure and moves toward the face of the door frame to which the first housing is affixed.